what would be the cheapest and best choice for a heavy bag for my style and why?

Question

i am 14, i am a self trained m.m.a. practicer, i have modifyed my own teqnique that uses tae kwon do, muay thai, and a little judo. and im not shure what exactly i would need because i have only done padded-sparring and ghost fighting by myself, and i havent had much luck anywhere else so if you guys have any suggestions to help me with my situation it would be great.

Answer 1

Bags come in all shapes and sizes; some are too hard for working out without having the proper equipment like hand wraps and gloves and a set of safety kick-others are soft enough that you don't need it. Many are sand filled and to heavy to hang from your floor joists without beefing up the floor joists in your basement. Even though a bag may weigh 75 pounds when it starts moving, swinging and bouncing up and down that's more than 75 pounds of stress that it is putting on whatever you are hanging it from because of it's momentum.
You can get some bags unfilled and a little cheaper and fill them with saw dust and small pieces of carpet padding yourself. Either way you want something with thick vinyl-if it says ballistic vinyl or 16 or 18 gage vinyl then that is more durable and won't rip with time.
Some of the water filled base bags that are out now are nice but you will pay $125-$250 for one. You don't want to put them on a cement floor as the friction of the concrete will wear out the bottom so its best to put it on a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting if it is going in your basement. If you put it in the garage water freezes-use sand instead to fill it. Shop around and you can usually find something on sale or cheaper than you otherwise would have paid and that fits your needs and where you may be thinking of placing it.

Answer 2

First, you need to attend a professional school. I *seriously* doubt a 14-year-old has learned enough about Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, and judo to create a successful/useful MMA style.

Now, about the heavy bag- they can be anywhere from $50 to $150. I think a decent one would cost about $100, maybe a little more. Everlast is a very popular heavy bag brand; my TKD school uses an Everlast bag that I *think* cost $120.
If you use kicking techniques, make sure you get a decent bag; the cheaper ones tend to "balloon" out at the bottom because gravity, aided by the force of punches/kicks, pulls the sand down there. This makes the lower half of the bag rock-hard and very painful to kick. I know because my father purchased a cheap bag and it's good only for punching.

Answer 3

Well it depends on what you wanna use the bag for. Whether it's for improving your striking skills or for toughening your limbs. Most improvised homemade bags I've seen are made of sacks or bags made of canvas tarps filled with sawdust or if you have access to them, rubber waste material. Although I did come across a pretty brutal heavy bag back in my youth while taking self defense class during our CMT(compulsory military training). Our instructor, who also had a leather upholstery business, made us practice on this bag that hurt like hell when you hit it at some parts, we had to time our strikes and approach it at a certain angle to minimize pain and I always wondered why, until I found out later that it was actually made of a 4 feet tall 6x6 hardwood post wrapped in canvas with layers of carpet, leather materials and sawdust in between, it hurt when you hit the rounded corners with your fist or shin and I doubt I would've been so eager to throw all those bombs at it at the time if I had known back then. But it sure made for one helluva conditioning training, after months of trembling limbs after working that bag, we pretty much got used to it and learned to bear the pain and take it as part of the training. I wouldn't recommend it to any students today as this would lead to unneccessary injuries nor for any instructor to subject students to it(you'll probably get your butt sued for it). But incorporating pain as part of training helped us realize that fighting is not about looking good while throwing kicks and punches, but about efficiency and will power. But if you really wanna be effective, you need to spar with another fighter to get any better, shadow fighting and bag work are only good for coordination and conditioning. To be able to gauge what works and what doesn't and find what's efficient for you, a live opponent who moves around and hits back is needed. Just having your kicks blocked by an elbow or your punches blocked or parried is enough to jar your attacking limb off their joints, so doing all those multiple super combos you see in movies is no picnic if you're connecting with bone, when a simple well timed punch or kick followed by a knee or elbow would suffice just as well and still leave you fresh to face more.

Answer 4

Join an MMA academy or Jujistsu club in your surrounding area. That way you can begin to really practice. Plus, there'll be plenty of punching bags there. Also try getting some of your friends involved and get them to help spar with you.

Answer 5

Okay, Dude, one word: Trainer

Answer 6

karate. you can practice and perfect the art even with minimal equipment.